


Whispers in the Daylight

by Rinari7



Series: Koreth and Vera [4]
Category: Guild Wars
Genre: Gen, Order of Whispers, Undercover, charr - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 14:04:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7055587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinari7/pseuds/Rinari7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Orders and the Legions have a certain back-and-forth relationship. Vera and Koreth receive their respective assignments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whispers in the Daylight

Her ears were already flattened against her head as the shot rang out. She held her breath, for a fraction of a second, and then the target dummy's head spun lazily as the bullet hit it in the left eye.

She aimed again, though only for half a second-- _”You won't have more than that in a fight,”_ rang through her mind, in her primus' voice, time and time again, and he had yet to be wrong. The bullet fit neatly into the dummy's right eye socket, bringing the slowly turning head to a halt.

 

“Not bad.” The voice rang out from behind her during a brief break in between the roar of the cannons. Vera flicked her ears once without turning, now aiming a shot at the heart, but for only a heartbeat.

“Shitty place to be. You can't hear anyone sneaking up on you.” The same female voice was raised to be heard over gunfire. The dummy trembled, the bullet buried just a hairsbreadth away from the bullseye on the left side of its chest.

 

“I heard you. I can hear the unhearable.” Now Vera turned to face the other female behind her, pulling her hood down over her face a bit more.

“Like you can see the unseeable. Liar.” Milenna smiled, her teeth glinting like her purple-tinted eyes, and she combed a paw back through her wiry, curly golden mane.  
“So I'm a liar. What else is new?” Vera returned the smile, setting the safety on her pistol as she put it back into its holster.

 

“You finally got a warband? Heard that's new.” Milenna's tone was offhanded.

“Finally.” Vera's ears twitched as a cannon shot rang out—they were on a shooting range after all—and the black-and-gold Charr in front of her pressed her ears to her head, turning to walk away from the range and down towards Ironrustler's cattle ranch.  
“Took you long enough,” she said, once they were far enough away to hear themselves think again.

 

“Took the fucking legionnaire long enough.” Vera snorted. “Who leaves a gladium sitting for two months—two damn long months in the Gladium's Canton—waiting on a response? 'Yes' or 'no' is not that fucking hard. And who just waves a recruit into the warband when she shows up by chance to deliver a message?” She let out a long, slow breath, and glanced sideways to see the other Charr's eyes fixed on her.

“Watch yourself.” Milenna looked around discreetly, then lowered her voice. “You pulled the last one off, but another incident and they will suspect you.”

“I know.” Vera rolled her shoulders, turning away so the other female wouldn't see her glower.

 

“You're here for information. Not to 'improve the warband'. Not to call attention to yourself. Not even to make friends.”

“I got the picture, madam primus.” Vera just managed to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

“You’ve got a mouth. The legionnaire okay with that?”

“Haven't talked with him much. He didn't ask me why I was a gladium. Asked me why I was grinning before a fight, though.”

 

“And what did you tell him?” Milenna’s tone was sharp.

“If I've got to fight, why shouldn't I enjoy it?”  
Her companion nodded, slowly. “Anything else?”

“Legionnaire spends a shitload of time in his lab, apparently.” She lowered her voice to match the other's tone. The echo of the cannons, though more distant, still provided some background noise to cover their conversation. “No idea where it is, or where the designs are, and I don't want to poke around right now.”

Milenna nodded again, once.

“If I handed in a design I might at least see where he keeps his own. You got a problem that needs to be worked on? Or someone who can give me a refresher? Or both?”  
“What kind of refresher?”

  
“Anything mechanical. Or even asuratech. It can be something I picked up during my mercenary days.” Vera lifted one shoulder, briefly.

“It can't be too much, then.”  
“A little is more than they probably know.”

Milenna narrowed her eyes, briefly. “Will they even accept an asuratech design?”

“I'd hope. If I can show them how to build all the components, I'd like to think they'd be pragmatic enough to take anything that works.”

“It's better than no plan.”

 

Her hackles began to rise at this, but she said nothing, simply tapping her claws on her right leg, a habit she'd learned from Koreth. “Do you have a better one?”

“Not at the moment, no. I'll see about getting you a few books on the simpler stuff in a few days, as well as the components. I hope you'll be able to take it from there. You need to know any design you hand in inside and out.”

Vera stopped walking and turned to face the other female, her paw worrying the hilt of her dagger, unbeknownst to her, as she lifted her upper lip. “Do you think I'm an idiot?”

“Is that meant to be a threat?” Milenna nodded towards Vera's paw on the dagger hilt— _Koreth's dagger_ flashed through her mind as she removed her paw.

“No.”

 

“Watch yourself.”

Milenna turned to leave, combing through her wiry gold mane with her claws again, when Vera blurted out: “Is there a newcomer to the Order named Koreth?”

With one eyebrow arched, Milenna turned to face her again. “What's it to you?”

“Old acquaintance of mine. I'd like to know whether I should consider him someone to confide in or not.”

 

“You confide in me. No one else.”  
“Of course not about the mission.” She rolled her eyes. “But just to know if I can even mention you guys around him. If I can relax a little.”

The purple-tinged eyes studied her for a moment before the other turned. “I'll ask,” was tossed over Milenna’s shoulder as she walked away.

_She does like to make you feel like a second-class citizen. Remind you who's in charge, ever-so-subtly. I'll never get rid of their fucking disrespect._ She shook her head even as that little voice she never could silence reminded her: _You've earned it._

* * *

 

The sun beat down on his back, his gray fur absorbing the sun's rays uncomfortably well. He flattened his ears against his head, the sound of hammering echoing around him and reverberating inside his skull as he too drove nails—carefully, not keen to have any more blue fingers—into the structures made of driftwood that looked more like houses made of toothpicks. _Idiots. It'll all fall apart again the next time a strong wind blows._

 

Why the hell the Order of Whispers was wasting his talents on this rebuilding project, where the only interesting information was whether or not the day was cloudy or if someone in the camp found an unscathed wine bottle among the wreckage, was beyond him. _Unless they don't trust me._

That was a possibility.

 

Anyone who looked into his records would see he was an exemplary soldier, and although he had failed as a legionnaire, there was no reason why the Legions wouldn't take him on as a simple soldier again. Legionnaires got demoted; not often, but it happened. Since he hadn't asked to completely leave the Legions, it begged the question as to why Ash Legion had let him go—instead of, say, killing him, if they'd wanted to be harsh. Exiling someone like him, who had a certain amount of insider information, would have been a stupid move—execution would've been better, and more in keeping with the Legion's interests.

_The Order suspects me._ It was something that he'd been mulling over for a while, and he was almost certain of it. They most likely had their spies within the Legions just like—well, Ash Legion at least—had spies within the Order.

As he took his lunch break, handing his dry bread off to one of the Norn workers and simply gnawing on the piece of beef jerky that was the only edible part of the worker's rations, he became aware of a black-and-gold Charr female staring at him with crossed arms. Her face was vaguely familiar, and he mentally cast about, trying to remember where he knew her from.

She must have noticed him staring, his ears twitching, since she uncrossed her arms and began walking over to where he stood. “Koreth, formerly Legionnaire Duskdancer?”

He felt her eyes rove over him as she tilted her head slightly up—an expression of dominance if he'd ever seen one.

 

“You've found him. Need him for anything?” Koreth swallowed the last bit of jerky and stood himself, crossing his arms. _Milenna Miragetrainer, works at the Black Citadel teaching mesmers. That's where I know her from._ Or at least the appearance—who was to say she was showing what she really looked like?

 

She was silent for several heartbeats, simply staring at him, before she spoke again. “They say you can know the unknowable.”  
“I simply find information most consider unfindable.” _So she's Whispers. Interesting._ It fit, somehow.

 

Her appearance was loud—she dressed in the purple robes many mesmers favored, and even the ties on her braids were purple. Her coloring was striking, the black contrasting with the bright yellow-orange patches over her eyes and on her shoulders. But something about her posture said she was in control of herself and everything around her.

 

With a simple flick of her paw, she gestured for him to approach, and she turned and began walking away from the building site, towards the shore. He could feel some of the other workers' eyes on his back as he followed, his arms still crossed.

Her voice was low as they approached the shoreline, the sound of the sea mostly muting it out, so that he had to focus to hear her properly.

 

“I'll be honest. The Order doesn't entirely trust you. You're not one we trained ourselves, and you come from spies who'd want our information for their own uses.”  
He almost opened his mouth to answer, but waited a fraction of a second, and she spoke again.

“But. We need all the paws we can get, with the shit the Elder Dragons have been causing.” She gestured subtly, frowning, her whiskers twitching. “And we especially need someone with your skills. So here's what will happen. You have experience infiltrating Flame Legion, yes?”  


He nodded, once.

“Good. That will be your job again. Their fortress is being combed, but they have other bases, and they know enough to go into hiding and rebuild their strength. They do have strength, though. Magical and mechanical as well since that alliance with the dredge. We want to shut that down and take it for ourselves. Pack up. Prepare to head out to Fireheart Rise tomorrow. You'll be met at the Kodan refuge of Haymal Gore by one of our representatives and your new handler.”

 

He nodded, once, again. The idea of having another handler besides Vera, his first, in their fahrar warband, was strange—although he was slowly getting used to it now, after months of having to deal with his new handler assigned to him from the centurion, an “old friend” he'd been sending coded letters to. Not that there had been much worth sending a letter about, lately. But still, the Order could hardly fault him for wanting to maintain his contacts.

 

“Anything from your side?”  
“Glad to get out of this blazing sun and away from the damn hammers. My ears still ring for an hour after I fall asleep.” He grinned at the female, and she smirked.

“I'll bet. Well, that's all from me. No, wait. A female named Vera was asking after you.”

  
He arched one eyebrow. She'd never been the chasing type, and not the type to let anyone—save for a few—know exactly what she was after. The hair on the back of his neck rose. _She thinks she can get to me with Vera._

“Feel free to tell her I'm fine, happy as ever with our Flame buddies. Or not, whatever.” He shrugged slightly, nonchalantly, the gesture calculated. “I'll finish the day here and leave in the morning. Not like I've got much to pack.”

Again, he could feel eyes on his back as he turned and walked back up the hill towards the building site.

* * *

 

A few days later, a courier turned up with a package. Vera smirked at the uniform she'd so recently stopped donning herself, and how the small male moved with his head down, unnoticed by most in the Canton, before she tipped him and wished him a good day with a small, courteous nod. She caught the briefest flash of a smile before he hurried back out of the quarters.

 

Setting the box on the table, she pried it open with care, inspecting the contents—luckily, she was currently alone in the room. A detonator, a power coupling, a power crystal—nothing more than a fancy battery; there had to be other ways to make one, but it would do for experiments—several different sensors, and other parts she had no idea about. _Damn. I sure hope Milenna gave me some decent books along with these._

_Don't let doubt in. You're smart. You can do this._ Taking a deep breath, she pulled out the books lining the bottom of the box. Just three, and Vera inspected them one by one.

 _A Progeny's Guide to Explosive Chemistry._ Vera snorted, her whiskers twitching. She was no child—but admittedly, asura cubs probably knew more than a Charr who'd taken a few basic courses late in the fahrar. At least she hoped they did, otherwise this book was a waste of space and paper for her.

 _Principles of Weaponry, now with Appendix on War Golems!_ The red tint to the cover had “Inquest” written all over it. “Either Milenna really is blind with her crazy magic-spoiled purple eyes, or I have no idea what the hell she's thinking.” Vera resolved to read that last.

 _Build and Repair Your Own Devices: Save on Paying a Golem- or Electromancer._ “Great. All the books are crap. I sincerely doubt these were the best she could do.” Vera sighed. “Not like I can do much about it.”

 

She quickly set about giving the pristine copies the look of wear and tear, folding corners arbitrarily and bending the spines. She'd worry about marking the important parts later, once she actually sat down to read them.

“I grabbed these in Lion's Arch at a bookstore shortly after I left the Legions,” she muttered under her breath. “Mostly skimmed them, and it's been a while, so my knowledge is a bit rusty. A friend's been storing them for me since I came to the Citadel—didn't want them to get stolen from the Gladium Canton, and I couldn't schlep them around with me every day.” That would work as an explanation, and Vera nodded to herself as she carefully stacked the books and parts in the back of her locker, stuffing her leather jacket and the rest of her gear in front of them.

 

It was only as she turned back towards the table that she noticed a small scrap of paper on the floor. Tilting her head curiously, she padded over to it and picked it up, turning it over.  
Scrawled there, in a decent if slightly large and loopy imitation of an Asura's handwriting, stood only a few words.

_You may speak with him of some of the unspeakable._

With a quick, small, but genuine smile, she pocketed the note. _I was right._ It would be tossed into the Imperial Smelter later, but for now she savored its presence, her manner unusually contented for the rest of the day.


End file.
